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Rice University’s Creative Ventures Funds Program has awarded grants to five Rice researchers and their colleagues through the InterDisciplinary Excellence Awards (IDEA), which support new research or academic partnerships by at least three faculty members across two schools.
This year’s winners are chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue (Sherry) Gao, civil and environmental engineer Qilin Li, theoretical physicist Andriy Nevidomskyy, bioengineer Robert Raphael and psychologist Eduardo Salas.
The awards of up to $75,000 over two years are for high-risk, high-reward initiatives that lead to proposals to generate new centers or programming with multiple principal investigators (PIs). The proposals are reviewed by Yousif Shamoo, vice provost of research, with input from the University Committee on Research.
The program supports the university’s goal to invest in faculty to achieve preeminence, as well as to elevate research achievement and reputation, both goals of Rice’s Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade.
Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering, plans a pilot study of integrating resource management on the Rice campus to encourage sustainable urban food, energy and water infrastructure. Co-PIs are Laura Schaefer, the Burton J. and Ann M. McMurtry Chair in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering, Juan José Castellón, an assistant professor of architecture, and Leonardo Dueñas-Osorio, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
